Loadings

On Saturday the St Denys Sailing and Rowing Club in Southampton had an open day in  their lovely boathouse on the River Itchen. They have a great collection of antique rowing boats, so Langstone Cutters took the antique Solent galley Bembridge along to meet up.
The most attractive boat was a tiny clinker-built single skiff, Merlin, which probably dates back to Victorian times. The slender hull and wineglass transom is a work of art, but the outriggers are a bit of a klutz. Could they have been added later?
Here is Merlin being pushed along by slimline Damian Grounds:

Note the difference change in freeboard when a person of average dimensions gets in. A whole extra strake is underwater. I really must cut down on the biscuits.....

Thanks to Graham Neil of St Denys Sailing and Rowing Club for the bottom picture. He has posted a video of Bembridge departing, and another cruel shot of what happens when two large blokes get in a smallish boat, on his blog Port-na-Storm.